Assocham demands Removal of withdrawal limit from current accounts

New Delhi, Dec 2: Industry body Assocham on Friday asked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to remove the withdrawal limits from the current accounts – mostly held by traders – from the current Rs 50,000 a week.

“(We) Urge the government to consider lifting the cash withdrawal limit for the corporate firms from the banks, as there is no scope for any misuse since such withdrawals are properly recorded, audited and can be subject to scrutiny by any authority including the tax departments,” Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a letter to Jaitley.

“The withdrawal limit of Rs 50,000 per week from the current account is very less for industry,” the industry body said.

The letter also sought restructuring of the bank loans and repayments schedules for a large number of industries, particularly in the small scale sector, which has been hit by the demonetisation of high value notes.

Expressing apprehensions that the companies which are dependent on the banks and institutions for finance would be hit, the chamber said: “In such a situation, the borrowers, particularly the private limited companies and micro, small and medium enterprises sector would default in loan repayments.”

“Under this state of affairs, the industry would require rescheduling of payments of loans as well as additional financial support to meet the liquidity requirement without any penal action,” it said.

Further, the chamber suggested that the government may issue cash cards (like metro card) so that even a person who does not have bank account can carry this card and can use it as debit/credit card for making payments.